


Palm Kisses

by strickenwithclairvoyance



Category: TFIL, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Kids, M/M, Moving Away, a lame version of a 3 and 1 fic, but they were the kids, elton gets the idea out of the one story about the raccoon, not even sure what those 3 are but hey, open ending(ish), palm kisses, you can decide whether they end up together or not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strickenwithclairvoyance/pseuds/strickenwithclairvoyance
Summary: Elton and Corey had been best friends since preschool, around the time the palm kisses started. Each time Corey felt scared or nervous or sad, Elton would give him a palm kiss as a promise they would see each other after whatever it was, even if it was just lunch. Eventually Elton's family moved away, Elton leaving a palm kiss and a teary-faced Corey before he left. Corey hadn't seen him for years, and didn't think he ever would again until a scruffy bearded stranger gives him a palm kiss before slipping out of the uni library.
Relationships: Elton Castee/Corey Scherer
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Palm Kisses

Corey didn't know exactly when it started. He suspected some time around pre school, when he was terrified to go alone. Elton was two years older, which meant he went to a different room, different teacher, different friends. Corey wasn't used to being separated from his best friend, much less for an entire six hours a day.  
Sniffling, Corey had followed behind his mother, clinging to Elton's hand. They neared the classroom and Corey bolted. Weaving between the forest of legs and tables, ducking under a bench pushed against the wall and stayed there, head buried in between his knees. Minutes felt like hours, when finally he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Core?" Elton rubbed his back, looking squished and uncomfortable in the tight quarters, but staying nonetheless. Corey sniffled, shuffling into his best friend's embrace. 

"Core, I know 'ou don't wanna but 'ur momm' 's gonna be mad if we don't go to school." Elton's regularly slurred speech comforted Corey, a familiar thing in this word of new. "don't wanna," he mumbled. 

"'ow come?" 

"'ou leave me!" Corey squeaked, more tears running down his small face. 

Pulling his best friend out from under the bench gently, Elton's brain gave him an idea. His mom had read a bedtime story to him about something like this. A raccoon, if he remembered right, a raccoon was scared for school but his mommy gave him a kiss and told him that when he needed her he could put his hand on his cheek and feel the kiss. Elton's four year old mind didn't quite understand how this worked, but it made the baby raccoon feel better, and if it worked on raccoons it was bound to work on Corey.

Opening Corey's small fist, he kissed his palm. Closing it back up, he covered Corey's hand with both of his own. "M' kisses promise I'll be back after school," he offered, not really remembering what he was supposed to do after kissing Corey's palm. Accepting this though, Corey wiped the tears and snot on his sleeve, sniveling, tucking his tightly curled fist that contained the precious kiss close to his chest.  
He let Elton lead him back to his mother and teacher.  
Elton kept his kiss's promise. 

\----------

"But moooooommmm, you're only gonna be gone for two weeks! I could stay home!" 

Corey stood in his mom's doorway, watching her struggle to zip up a suitcase full of fancy-looking clothes.

"Corey Scherer, you are eight years old. You are not staying home alone with no supervision for two weeks." They'd been over this five times. She was tired of it.

"But I could-"

"No, you can't stay with the Castee's. Two weeks is much to long to drop you off with poor Susie. She already has Elton and a new baby on the way. Pat's gone all the time for business, she had no one to help her, and there is no way you are staying with her."

Corey pouted. He didn't want to go to this Christian camp in the middle of nowhere with no friends. He wanted Elton. 

"Go pack your stuff, hun, we need to leave soon." 

Corey did not in fact pack his stuff. He slunk into his room and clambered out the window. Climbing into the tree outside, he slid down the trunk, not caring that his hands became bloody and scratched. He walked a ways into the woods of his backyard, climbing up a latter into the tops of a tall oak. His arms shook as his little eight year old muscles strained to pull him onto the platform of the treehouse. 

His dad had built the treehouse before he'd left. It was a safe space that no one knew about. Save for Elton, of course. Corey put three red marbles into a bucket on a string and pushed it down the line. Watching as it slid out of sight, he curled into the corner, tracing the endless doodles of the floor with a light finger. 

He closed his eyes and just listened. He could hear the squeak squeak squeak of an old bicycle and the crash of it hitting the forest floor. He could hear the patter of shoes hitting rungs of a latter and the thump of them across the platform. He could feel the presence of his best friend and a head on his shoulder.

Elton held out his hand, holding the stones from the bucket. 

"Three red marbles, what's wrong?"

Corey curled into the hug that his best friend offered. 

"My-My mom w-wants m-e to go to this c-ca-mp while sh-e's gone-"  
Elton rubbed his back.

"A-and I'll miss-s yo-u and I do-on't kn-ow why I'm-m so upset, it's just for a cou-ple we-eks, I just-"

"It's okay, Core."

Corey cried into the comfort of his best friend's arms. Elton smelled like dirt and fruit and laundry detergent and home. No matter what he always had a sent of home about him that Corey's eight year old mind couldn't really wrap around. 

Elton pulled a slightly melty lolly out of his pocket and offered it to Corey. He swatted a bug away and unwrapped the candy. Elton pulled a red one out for himself and settled next to Corey. They ate their sticky sweets in silence, listening to the birds and the sound of rushing water from the tiny creek that bubbled near by. 

All too soon, they heard Corey's mom's frantic calls. He wanted to stay, but Elton pulled him to his feet and pushed him towards the slide. "Go, you'll get in trouble and then we won't be able to play Mario when you get back."

Corey pulled his best friend into a bear hug, trying to burn his friend's embrace into his memory for the next two weeks. He pulled away and went to slide down the plastic, but Elton caught his hand and placed a kiss on the palm. Corey smiled, curling his fingers around the kiss once Elton pulled away. Waving with his fist, he caught the last glimpse of his best friend as he dashed off to climb back into his widow. 

Corey held his palm to his cheek at night, surrounded by his sleeping campmates. He never ran faster than when the bus dropped him off two weeks later. Elton was waiting in the treehouse with celebratory ice-cream he had stolen from the freezer, and the biggest hug ever. They had stayed up late playing Mario and catching up as if  
they hadn't seen each other in years, and Corey really trusted in the power of Elton's palm kisses. He'd always find his best friend. 

\----------

"Do you really have to..?" Tears ran down Corey's face. Elton nodded, tears streamed down his as well, which absolutely terrified the younger boy; only on a few rare occasions had he ever seen Elton cry. And they never ended well. 

"My whole family has to go, Core," Elton's voice sounded tight, like something had taken his throat and squeezed it in a fist. "We don't have a choice."  
Elton's dad always traveled for his work, Corey knew. He worked in the military, something Elton often expressed his dislike for, considering his more woke political views, but his dad couldn't exactly drop out just like that. He only had a few more years until he could be discharged, but they weren't going fast enough. Elton's dad was being stationed across the country to a military base in California. The rest of the Castees had to go too. They didn't think they would be coming back. 

Corey pressed his body to Elton's, squeezing as tightly as he could. When Elton had sent five red marbles down the line, Corey knew something was horribly wrong, but he figured Taco had been hit by a car or someone was in the hospital. He didn't expect to lose is best friend. 

They watched in silence from their small view from the treehouse as the Castee's stuff was loaded into a big van. Corey suggested they hide something important, like the fridge, trying to hide how much he was hurting inside. Elton's watery laugh made his façade worth it, even though the older boy said even if they could hide the fridge, they weren't taking the fridge with them, so it'd be no use, someone would just find a random fridge the woods.  
They sat together as they watched the movers. They sat still as the sky started to darken and the sun started to go down. Eventually, it was time. Corey had a pit in his stomach and it was staring to churn. They watched their mothers tearfully embraced. They watched as Elton's father gave Corey's mother a hug and led his wife to the van. 

They heard the call for Elton. 

Corey squeezed his best friend's hand tighter. Tears squeezed their way out of his eyes and tracked down his cheeks. He tried pushing them back in; he was thirteen, he wasn't a baby, he shouldn't cry like this; but it was no use. He let them run. Slowly, as if in a daze, Elton stood up, his hand slipping out of Corey's . They went down the latter, Elton still in his zombielike state. Each rung felt like another step towards doom, another bad guy in one of their video games. But this one they couldn't defeat. 

Elton climbed into the Castee's SUV, closing the door and pressing his face to the glass. He could see Corey looking back at him, but he knew he wouldn't be able to part with him if he didn't put a barrier between himself and his old home.

Corey kept his knees firmly locked as he watched the vehicles pull out of the driveway. He watched them through glazed eyes as they rolled down the road. He resisted the  
urge to run after them.

Suddenly, the SUV stopped and the passenger door flew open. Elton barreled towards Corey and nearly knocked him off his feet. Elton's arms were wrapped around Corey so tightly he could barely breathe. Tears streamed down both their faces and Corey tried to memorize every detail about Elton in five seconds. The way he smelled, how his arms fit around Corey, the scar on his shoulder from when the challenged Corey to a mountain bike race. How warm he was. How very warm he always was, and it was a comforting sort of warm, like a security blanket or a heater after rain. His face. How his face always managed to look pretty even if tears were running down it and his eyes were puffy and red from crying. How his lips felt against Corey's palm as he gave one last token of remembrance. The palm kiss. Then he was gone.  
Corey didn't realize he was running until he tripped and fell. He watched on is bloody knees as the tail lights faded into the night and he cried under the stars.

\-------------

Corey was on his fifth cup of coffee, but he still felt like the living dead. Uni was not what it was made out to be. There weren't any crazy parties, no long nights of staying up with your housemates and drinking yourself silly. He and his housemates were all busy with their studies, just trying to get through the year, same as everyone else; which was why Corey was currently on his way back to the library from the coffee shop around the corner.

Practically stumbling back into the library, he slumped into the chair of his usually occupied table in the corner. His heavy books toppled to the table with an unintentionally loud bang, earning him the disapproving looks of the librarian. Corey sighed into his coffee cup, the caffeine doing little to squander his fatigue. He pulled the list of assingments up on his laptop, checking and double checking he had almost everything done before whisking off to find a book required for his last assignment.

He troped through the isles of books, scanning the topics and authors. Reaching where his book should be, he glanced to its usual spot; to his surprise it was nowhere to be found. He skimmed the surroundig shelves incase it had been misplaced, but no such luck. 

A hand tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around startled.

A man was stood behind him, signifitantly taller than Corey. There was an air of familiarity about him; warm brown eyes, a scruffy beard, crazy dyed hair stuffed under a cap. Corey brushed it off as having seen this man an a lecture hall or something. 

The man held out a book. The book; the one Corey needed. "Oh thank you so much," Corey whispered.

The man nodded. "Psychology major?" 

"Yup. I sometimes wonder if it's too late to switch to Drama or Preforming Arts, god knows I'm dramatic enough..." Corey sighed, making his way back slowly to his table, the man trailing behind him. 

"Oh yeah?" The man smiled a bit. "I had a best friend when I was younger that always talked about going to Julliard and becoming a big dancer" He took the seat across from Corey, resting his cheek on his palm. Corey smiled, propping the book open against the stack of textbooks already piling on the table.

"No way! That's what I wanted to do when I was little. I would put on these shows for my best friend and his dog. He was my biggest fan. He always told me I'd be on 'The Great White Way,' even though we had no idea what that was." Corey laughed; the man's smile reached his eyes, showing the well worn lines of many grins in the past. 

"Oh that's just sweet," he smiled. He slumped onto his crossed arms, eyes twinkling at Corey as he typed away at his laptop. The silence that followed felt natural, like something that had been perfected over years and years. It was strange thing, Corey thought; however he brushed it off as natural chemistry. Some people just work. Yeah.  
That was it. 

Corey's soft muttering fixed with the sound of pages and clacking of keys turning seemed to be a loop of comfort on repeat for the stranger, who pulled a weathered book from his bag, settling back in his chair and sticking a cherry lolly in his mouth. Corey snuck a look at the stranger's book. Video game theory. Huh.

Corey sipped his coffee. He tried to place exactly why this felt so normal. A scrappy haired stranger in a baseball cap curled up across from him eating cherry candy and reading about Zelda should have been... strange or worrying or both, to say the least. Not to mention the way they automatically clicked. And he looked to familiar; but one peek in his bag at his textbooks confirmed that he was not in any lecture hall of any kind that Corey was in.

After an oddly comfortable half hour, the stranger stood up, stretching. "Well," he whispered. "This was fun." Placing a cherry lolly in front of Corey he smiled. The stick had a number written on it. When did he do that? "Call me sometime." 

Corey's face was flushed, but he decided to pretend it absolutely was not. He stuck a hand out. "I absolutely will. It was great meeting you."  
With a flourish, the man took Corey's hand, flipping it and placing a scratchy kiss on the palm. He winked.

And with that he was gone. 

Corey's brain took a minute to reel in and process what had just happened. It took a minute, but it clicked. 

He jumped up and literally scrambled out of the chair he was in. His laptop smacked shut and his coffee tipped over and Corey's feet almost lost their grip on the floor. The librarian gave a noise somewhere in-between a shout of indignation and a sound of worry but Corey was already up and out of the library, chasing the disappearing baseball cap covered head.

"Elton!"

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! if you want to come yell at me on tumblr or request anything, my @ is @antisocial-potato 
> 
> I don't actually do much on there other than scroll, but message me whenever!
> 
> this story was originally taken from my wattpad account which is disclosed information as I am trying to hide the cringe that 11 year old me set out into this cursed land
> 
> but apparently I decided this wasn't too much cringe to hide away forever, so here we are
> 
> See you all around! Bye! :)


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